The Modern Vegetarian: Food Adventures for the Contemporary Palate

I have only tried two of the recipes in the book thus far. Both have been quite good. The only downside is that most of the recipes require many fresh or esoteric ingredients that will surely necessitate a trip to the grocery. Most are also a significant time commitment. These are not 30 min recipes from ingredients you have around the house, but the results are commensurate with the time.

We purchased this book as a gift to a vegetarian grand-daughter. We read some of the recipes and decided to try them ourselves. They are delicious and we really appreciate the way the author suggests optional ingredients. It is very easy to add animal products (meat, cheese, broth), if that is your interest, but the pure vegetarian recipes are deliciious on their own.

Our Vegetarian daughter was moving home so I ordered this book after hearing a glowing review on NPR. I was not disappointed. The recipes are so tasty and the photos are wonderful. My husband and I are meat eaters but both of us have enjoyed the variety of foods featured in this book. We may become vegetarians yet!

The modern vegetarian's receipe's were inviting enough for a stout meat eater to consider eating more vegetarian meals cooked from this book.

a wonderfulvisual book with numerous excellent recipies. Recipies from around the world. easily constructed and delicious

Some of the recipes sound interesting, especially the brûlée. They appear to be untested. That is fine for an experienced cook but not for a newbie. I am disappointed.

Not great recipes a little high end

This is a beautiful book with very unique recipes. However, not all are low fat but can be adapted.

A really excellent vegetarian cookbook that I fear will only appeal to a very limited minority - those who want to cook vegetarian food and have also got the talent, ability and desire to cook complex, sometimes difficult dishes using a large number of ingredients.First off, it should be said that the recipes in this cookbook are really pretty remarkable.Beautifully photographed, this book is a joy to read and I would happily leave it lying around on my coffee tables for everyone else to skim through with hungry appreciation.Some of the recipes that particularly appealed to me were Watermelon Gazpacho in Thai Style; Lemongrass and Sweetcorn Soup with Creme Fraiche; Mushroom, Beetroot, Mozzarella with a Lentil Cartouche. I wasn't so keen on the idea of the Griddled Radicchio and Strawberry Risotto, but maybe it is amazing too. Hopefully this gives you a sense of the adventurous, exotic nature of the recipes in this cookbook!With that said, personally I found the recipes so complex that I don't think I will be attempting to cook from this book often. They are the kind of food I would be absolutely delighted to be served in a restaurant, but which I probably wouldn't get around to preparing myself unless it's for a very special occasion where I want to wow my guests. For example, the opening dish of Carrot Pancakes with Houmous and a Feta Salad looks delicious but there are 36 separate components! Don't be put off - it's not that the recipes involve difficult techniques, and they are explained clearly and well. It's more the quantity of ingredients involved - just not things you would have hanging around in your kitchen cupboards. For me, getting all of the ingredients together would involve a lot of time and expense.I am sure I will come back to this book a lot, but maybe more for inspiration and reading pleasure than for actual use. I'm not sure that I'm the type of cook it's intended for. I would actually recommend this to any vegetarian cook in any case, simply because it has such beautiful flavour ideas and makes for a great read. A brilliant cookbook - but make sure you are up to the challenge!

This is a very inventive and imaginative book, with some wonderfully original and mouth-watering ideas. The only criticism I would make is that many of the recipes are very complicated with lots of stages involved - it is definitely not in the "quick and easy / supper in 30 minutes" category !Really I wish that somebody else would take the trouble to make these lovely recipes for me ! However I will certainly use this book when having a dinner-party or any time when I want to make an effort for a special occasion

Really good book.Excellent recipes.I was so impressed I bought 5 more copies for friends!

Some of the recipes in this book are useful, I found, though some of them are pretty fiddly.

Some very good recipes